How One Female Police Sergeant Fought A Three Year Court Battle Against Her Department, Winning At Every Level
One of the biggest missteps the department took in their retaliatory efforts towards me was delivered on January 6, 2004, by Lieutenant Potts. Just a few days earlier, the Chief had recognized me at the department’s Christmas party, held December 19th, by awarding me with two commendations. I’m recognized for doing outstanding investigative work on two separate cases in front of all my fellow officers. Then days later, Potts gives me my “parting evaluation” with six out of eight job responsibilities rated as “Below Good”, one of them being investigative work. After I made an arrest in one of the biggest B&E’s to occur on campus, Potts sent out a department-wide email praising my investigative work.
He also shared how I had worked with CCBI to check the suspect’s fingerprints against the ones found at the entry point on top of the building; therefore, sealing the case against the defendant and leaving no room for his lawyer to work any plea deals. It resulted in securing a felony conviction. Some of the things they did were just astonishingly dumb.
The ratings scale in State government could range from Outstanding, Very Good, Good, Below Good, to Unsatisfactory. It ended up backfiring on them because I had all of my past evaluations and never received any job responsibility grade lower than a “Good”. Then to add even more proof to this being retaliatory in nature, Potts gave me a “Below Good” in the very area where I excelled the most, physical fitness. I came out of the Academy with final fitness scores of Excellent/Superior and ran the 1.5 mile run in 13.56 minutes.


Ann Trochum resides in Fuquay-Varina, N.C., with her husband Tom, who is an ordained Pastor. After retiring, Ann served five years volunteering with Wake Med Hospital. Since both retired, they have traveled outside of the country to serve on four mission trips through their local church; two to Haiti and two to Costa Rica.

This is not just a story about policing—it’s about what happens when integrity collides with institutional self-protection.